How Does Rap Music Affect Young African Americans?

I think any type of music puts you in a certain mood. It give's me energy! I try to stay away from all the negative rap, and listen to the positive. They have gospel rap now, which i love. It's more positive and i can play it around my parents and my kids. I use to listen to alot of hardcore rap, but now im a christain. Plus im a little older. But to answer your ques., It affects us because it's something we can relate to. We know about growing up in the hood, and seing gangmembers, people getting shoot and killed. Rap music talks about our life and how we live. The rap music today is all about money. Not every black person is in gangs and on drugs, or hate whitey. We just want to be equal and know that we are not being discrimanated against. Rap music is an outlet; an expression of how we feel. It can be good or bad. It doesn't make us go out and kill anyone. People who do that can't blame rap music.  Rap music for young african americans is in a way of being cool; it's cool if you listen to rap music. But everybody is listening to it now! More whites and mexicans than black people. Young white america is listen to rap, because they want to know what's going on in the hood. But reality is, we are trying to get out of the hood!

The same way metal affected young white kids like me ;) lol! Both are much maligned genres of music that don't deserve it. Just look at the millions upon millions that listen to a song and there are only an incredibly small percentage that commit crime based on lyrics and it arguable these individuals would have committed the acts with prompting from other sources because they're unstable anyway. And along the same line of reasoning, look at all the crimes that have been committed while country music has been playing. I'd like to blame it on the music, but the fact is no music makes anyone commit crime. Punk rock and metal never made me commit crimes nor did it to millions of other listeners. Music, any kind, is more a positive force than a negative one. Always has been, always will be.

Most of the Rap music is a bad influence to our youngsters since it represents every thing we parents fight to keep our children away from, rap music gives them the reason that every said in the rap music is how life is all about, it aint, rap is influencing them that they should rather be selling drugs, join gangs in order to get the good life, the easy life.  Haven't parents seen how the clothing, the acting, the responding trends that rap has given to our kids, they show it every day. Music videos, even children animation, it is just what sells in the open market, and about some gospel rap music, nice start. But we as parents should stand up towards violence, criminal influences around us by reporting neighborhood problems to police and the community or your just gonna hide behind your kids, feed them to the wolves, look behind those curtains as your kid crosses the street filled with hooligans.